The Sunny Kitchen - An Italian cook in Amsterdam

Roses cake (torta delle rose)

(Per questo post in ITALIANO fare click qui.)

 
This is a beautiful, very tasty and yet delicate specialty from my sister Francesca who loves everything that is sweet (she even has a great blog dedicated to sweets).
And yet... the cake on this page was made by my Mum, Gabriella, as you can see in the video.

It's based on a recipe (in Italian) that Francy originally found on the Italian site Gennarino.org.

It's a very simple and very attractive cake, also easy to serve because you just have to detach a single "rose" for every portion you need.

Making the cake, typical from Mantua, is not that difficult (you can see how it's done in the video). The final result is quite spectacular and really, really good.

 

Torta delle rose/Roses cake from Nicoletta Tavella on Vimeo.

 

ROSES CAKE

Ingredients:

fresh yeast (about 25 gr.) or dry yeast (about 7 gr.)
1 glass of lukewarm milk
2 whole eggs
3 tablespoons of olive oil
3 tablespoons of sugar
grated zest of 1 lemon
500 gr flour
a pinch of salt

PLUS
100 gr soft butter at room temperature
100 gr sugar
icing sugar to garnish

Mix all the ingredients well, by hand or with a mixer, and leave the dough to rest in a bowl for one and a half hour, covered with a clean kitchen cloth and away from draught.

Roll out the dough with the rolling pin on a surface that you have first dusted with flour to avoid sticking. The sheet has to be not too thin neither too thick, and rectangular in shape.

Mix butter and sugar and spread this cream evenly on the rolled out dough.

Roll up the dough like a cigar and cut it in thick slices (see pictures).

Lay the dough cylinders next to each other in a high, round oven dish (about 26/28 cm diameter) leaving some space between them because they'll rise and become larger, filling all the gaps. Leave to rise again protecting from draught until the dough has doubled its volume.
If you used a spring-release tin lay it on top of a flat oven dish because the butter will melt and leak a bit.
Put in the pre-heated oven (170°C) for about 45 minutes (30 with a ventilated oven) or until nice and golden (I usually ignore the time indicated in recipes because all ovens are different and check from time to time how things are going).

Remove from the tin after it's cooled off a bit and serve dusted with icing sugar.

 

No the Generals didn't eat it, we did... :)

Citrus Love, my Summer 2010 cocktail

I adore all that is citrus and tend to use it a lot in my cooking.
I drink it a lot, too. Every morning I press a lime or a lemon, preferably organic, to blend it with other types of fresh fruit in my smoothie.
I'm kind of a citrus-addict. No wonder the only soft drink I drink more than twice a year - in general I tend to boycott soft drinks 'cause they're full of sugar and other not-so-healthy stuff - is Chinotto, a very old-fashioned Italian drink that now seems to enjoy a well-deserved comeback and is becoming quite popular again in my country.
I say "no wonder" because chinotto is not only a soft drink but a type of citrus. Its Latin name is Citrus Myrtifolia and in Italy this plant grows really well in the Liguria region and in Sicily.
The chinotto fruit is very bitter. So much that it's impossibile to eat it like an orange or a tangerine unless it's candied. One of my favourite treats on earth are the bitter chocolate covered chinotto's made by Domori, one of the finest Italian chocolate producers. A must if you love chocolate AND chinotto. While eating my first one I discovered the real meaning of "match made in heaven" and I need just one of those little plump candied fellas to be a happier person.

The soft drink that takes its name from this fruit originating in China is made by several Italian soft-drink producers and it's usually very pleasantly bitter-sweet. My favourite one is made by Lurisia and the San Pellegrino one is quite OK too.
These days I'm drinking it a lot "straight" and I thought it would be nice to combine it with some other ingredients in a cocktail, for a change.
So this is the result. My Citrus Love Italian cocktail.

You need 1/4 Bombay Sapphire gin, 3/4 Chinotto, preferably Lurisia, the juice of 1 lime, some crushed mint leaves, ice cubes and a slice of green lime to decorate.

Mix well and enjoy!

Cooking video: linguine with pesto genovese

I grew up with pesto. The first time I ate it was practically with my baby food. I guess being born in Genoa from Genovesi parents helped.
Pesto is in the Top 10 of my comfort foods: easy to make, easy to keep - not longer than a week in a glass jar in the fridge, covered with a thin layer of olive oil extra vergine or a couple of months in the freezer. I put practically nothing in the freezer (in general I don't like frozen food, not even if I made it myself) but some pesto in one or two persons portions always comes in handy for a quick plate of pasta when the fridge is empty.
Well, quick... Maybe not. You're not supposed to warm up pesto since it is at its best when very fresh and uncooked, and especially not in the microwave! You would then end up with a ball of cheese tasting of garlic and basil. Particularly if you use lots of cheese as I do. So even if frozen, it will stay slow food 'cause you'll need the patience to let is thaw with no external heat involved.
Some people freeze pesto in ice-cubes holders. Clever! Like that you have small portions that can be used for pasta and soup AND thaw quite fast.

The original use of pesto as in Genoa is purely as a pasta sauce and extra taste maker in the minestrone soup. Here in Holland, and I guess in the rest of the world, pesto gets misused and abused on practically everything: sandwiches, meat, green salads, caprese, you name it. Not exactly classic uses but I guess that says how popular and loved pesto is.

Linguine al pesto (ENG) from Nicoletta Tavella on Vimeo.

The best way to make it is with classic marble mortar and wooden pestle since these two materials are "basil friendly"and that's how my mom always made it since the arrival of the kitchen robot. From that moment on, pesto making was not a lengthy and a bit tiring operation anymore but a breeze...

I always make it with the kitchen robot even if the purists insist it's no good. As long as you don't mix too long - the ingredients would get warmed up and that would damage the wonderful structure of this almost totally raw sauce (only the cheeses are not exactly raw) - you can make wonderful pesto also with a kitchen robot. And fast! A few minutes and you have a fragrant, creamy sauce so good you can eat it with a spoon. After self-made pesto there's no turning back. No more awful pesto in a jar bought at the supermarket!

This version of mine is quite "cheesy". I love strong, very well defined tastes and the saltiness of pecorino cheese but of course you can experiment and choose to use less of it, if you like. The very classic recipe says you should use Sardinian pecorino but here I used romano and the result was quite good anyway.
I would definitely avoid using more garlic because it has a dominant character. In my family we also use a handful of walnuts to give extra "zest" to the pesto and a dollop of butter to smoothen it up even further. I love it like this.

Good pesto should have just a hint of garlic. So feel free to cut down on my six (reasonably little) cloves, also if you prefer less comments on your breath. ;)

This is the first video I made all by myself. Long live the tripod!
The song I chose as a "soundtrack" is possibly my favourite Italian song ever, "Mediterraneo" from Gino Paoli, another Genovese I'm very proud of (like all of the other fantastic cantautori that my beautiful city gave birth to). Every time I hear it I get tears in my eyes.
"Son nato in Mediterraneo", I was born on the Mediterranean... and that's how I feel, even after 24 years of living far from it.

Enjoy!

Cooking video: focaccia barese with tomatoes

 
My friend Claudio Varone, architect and artist, loves to cook.

No wonder, practically all of my friends love to cook, otherwise they wouldn't be my friends. ;)

You might remember Claudio as the author of my favourite spritz cocktail. He's also a great cook who loves to reproduce the dishes of his birth region, Puglia. He's a Barese (native of Bari), to be precise, and it's funny that we grew up in the same city having common friends but we never met until a lot later, when we were both already living in Amsterdam. 
In Bari we grew up with the typical focaccia with tomatoes that every school kid in Bari eats when coming out of school, hungry like a wolf. Some of the best panifici (bakeries) in town are strategically placed close to schools and I guess that's not by chance: the quantity of focaccia sold to young students is MASSIVE.

We had already been experimenting with focaccia al pomodoro twice, with growing satisfaction but not completely happy about the end results. A few days ago we gave it another try with a recipe from the book "Pane, pizze e focacce" written by Laura Ginapri changing only the type of flour used (half durum wheat and half "00" type instead of 100% "00" flour as in the original recipe) and the result really made us happy. Worth an immediate "memory lane" flash.
You can see the product of our efforts here in my newest video.
Long-time French friend Pascal helped Claudio in preparing the focaccia. We actually made two types of focaccia, one of which - the one Pascal worked at more intensively, with a mashed potato in it, a common ingredient in Bari's home-made focaccia's - ended up in a bit of a drama, as you can see on the right. Very tasty but still a sticky drama.

So from now on we prefer to stick to this one, an AMAZINGLY tasty focaccia with crunchy bits (usually the sides) and a softer center.
Make sure you spread the dough quite thinly in the oven dish, it's important that it doesn't get too thick.
All in all this focaccia comes out quite crunchy thanks to the abundant use of olive oil, something that characterizes the Apulian cuisine (just look at my Mom's tiella!).

Focaccia al pomodoro barese

Serves... just a few happy few, it's too good to eat with moderation :D

Ingredients:

200 gr. / 7 oz durum wheat flour
200 gr. / 7 oz type "00" flour
25 gr. / 0.8 oz. fresh brewer's yeast
300 ml/10.14 fl. oz lukewarm water
2 teaspoons of sea salt
1 tablespoon of milk
a can of good quality peeled tomatoes (we used Mutti)
a handful of black olives
dried oregano
salt
coarse sea salt
extra virgin olive oil

Mix the two types of flour in a big bowl.
Dilute the yeast completely in part of the lukewarm water and add it to the two flours mixing well. After a while - wait for about 4-5 minutes so that the yeast can do its work properly, salt inhibits its effects - add the salt, also diluted, and then the rest of the water. Mix and add the milk, mixing a bit further.
The dough has to be very soft and sticky.
Cover it with plastic foil and leave to raise for about an hour on a warm place.

Chop the canned tomatoes coarsely.

Spread the dough on a well-oiled oven dish (grease your fingers too to avoid sticking) and spread the chopped tomatoes on top of it.
Add the olives and season with oregano, a bit of coarse sea salt and plenty of olive oil.

Put in the pre-heated oven at 200°C /392°F for about 30-35 minutes and bake until golden brown.

Focaccia barese with tomato from Nicoletta Tavella on Vimeo.

Cooking video: tiella with rice, potatoes and mussels

My first culinary video as a "director" is one of the most typical dishes from Bari, in Puglia, and it's called tiella di riso, patate e cozze.

This is my Mum's version - the hands you see are hers :) - and she changes the original recipe a bit using shelled raw mussels instead of half shells (filled with mussels, of course) because the end result is then easier to cut (no hard stuff in between rice and potatoes to make cutting difficult). The positive aspect of using shells is that they fill with cooked rice grains that soak up the wonderful juices of the mussels and make it more fun to eat.

Use potatoes that stay nice and firm. Cut them with a mandoline to ensure very thin slices. You'll have to check from time to time if they are cooked inserting a knife to feel their texture. When they're ready it will be very easy to pierce them.

Gabriella uses about a kilo of shelled mussels but if you use the de-shelled ones one and a half kilo will do perfectly fine (they take more space inside the oven dish). The type of rice is Vialone Nano but Carnaroli is great too.

Use two handsful of grated pecorino romano cheese that will be mixed with a couple of finely chopped garlic cloves and a bunch of flat leaf parsley, also chopped. Some freshly ground black pepper is also nice. Use the mixture of cheese, garlic and parsley twice (two layers, also on top of the mussels) in between layers of other ingredients. 
The water you add before putting the dish in the oven has to be salted and very hot (almost boiling). Cover the tiella up to the rim and put in the pre-heated oven at 240°C - 464° F for about 20-25 minutes until well cooked and golden brown.

Enjoy this WONDERFUL Apulian dish! :)))





Tiella with rice, potatoes and mussels from Nicoletta Tavella on Vimeo.

Torta salata con radicchio rosso e fontina

Before the winter goes - something that still seems quite far away seen the cold temperatures that are  putting our patience to the test - I want to post a few more winter recipes.
This one is vegetarian and terribly caloric but very tasty and perfect for cheese lovers like me.

The long red radicchio salad (chicory) I've used is a bit bitter. I really like bitter ingredients and have totally no problem with them but if you wish to reduce the bitterness you can add a little sugar or, better, honey - a teaspoon or so. Also remove its white lower part close to the roots to make it less bitter.

If you can't find the elongated type of radicchio I used you can also substitute it with "round" radicchio (the one more often used as salad).
Radicchio exists in different varieties, even light yellow with red dots, and it’s a vegetable coming originally from the Veneto region.

Instead of fontina cheese you can also use taleggio.

Torta salata con radicchio rosso e fontina

Serves 4-6

Puff pastry
2 big bunches of radicchio trevisano or 4 small ones
400 gr fontina cheese (or taleggio)
2 onions
olive oil extra vergine
½ glass white wine
honey or sugar
salt, black pepper and 1 egg yolk

Pre-heat the  oven at 180°-200° C.
Wash the radicchio and slice in thin rings. Peel the onions and slice them in rings. Fry the onions in olive oil until soft and sweet.
Add the wine, let evaporate and add the radicchio.
Keep on stirring until the radicchio is cooked (7-8 minutes). Season with salt and pepper and add a teaspoon of honey or sugar if you wish less bitterness.
Make sure this mixture is quite dry (that the excess water from the veggies has evaporated) so that the quiche doesn’t get wet.
Butter an oven dish and cover with some puff pastry. Use a fork to make little holes in the pastry to make sure this cooks evenly.
Fill with the radicchio-onion mixture and add the fontina cheese, cut in pieces.
Cover the quiche with extra puff pastry, seal it well, brush with egg yolk and put in the oven for about 25-30 minutes (check from time to time to make sure it doesn’t burn).
Serve lukewarm.

Sunset on the sea, Bari, March 2, 2010

Marche: true unknown beauty

 

Driving from Tuscany to Puglia I stopped in the Marche, one of the most unknown Italian regions and not only for foreign visitors: I had NEVER been there before except for a short stop in Ancona to take the ferry to Croatia a few years ago, seeing practically nothing but Ancona's harbour.
Shame on me for I missed a lot, and now I know that. Le Marche is a surprisingly beautiful area with amazing panoramas, breathtaking old cities and absolutely great food and wine.

I just stopped for a night in Recanati, a city that got me in total awe with her beauty, the place where Giacomo Leopardi, one of Italy's greatest poets, and famous opera singer Beniamino Gigli where born. There I enjoyed the great hospitality of the Gallery Hotel Recanati with its beautiful and comfortable rooms and its fantastic restaurant.
The fish menu made me a happy woman - the Marche region is famous for both meat and fish dishes - together with a great Verdicchio di Matelica, one of the many good local wines chosen by the hotel's sommelier to go with the creative and traditional dishes the kitchen served us. One among many: wonderful paccheri (big maccheroni) with cuttle fish and green peas, a classic of the Marche's cuisine. Mmmmm...

Wanting to leave for Puglia reasonably early the morning - ahem, afternoon - I didn't have a lot of time to visit Recanati but had a taste of it thanks to my enthusiastic and dedicated "guide", Marisa, who works for the Gallery Hotel and whom kindly accompanied me to visit the center of town with its beautiful Persiani theater and a great food shop (Maria Pia Cappella, Piazza Mazzagalli Marotti 4) where I bought fresh sausages, the lovely pecorino di fossa cheese and the famous ciauscolo, the soft salami typical of the Marche region that can be spread on bread and crostini or eaten in little chunks when a bit more mature. Something NOT to be missed if you're in the Marche.

I promised myself to stay longer next time I go.
Very soon, I hope.

Room with a view 1

Room with a view 2

Recanati's main square

With Marisa :)